Confession of addict: Gambling starts at early age

Confession of addict: Gambling starts at early age
SÜMEYRA KIRCA , İSTANBUL

A confession by a gambling addict reveals that gambling is very common among high school students and that the seeds for addiction are sown during high school or sometimes even during the primary school years.

Many addicts of games of chance such as Milli Piyango, Sayısal Loto, Spor Toto and İddia are being treated to overcome their addiction. Confessions by addicts reveal that such addictions start at an early age.

One former gambling addict, Eren Kadız, who started placing bets in high school and overcame his six-year-long İddia addiction, told Today’s Zaman that 90 percent of his friends at school were playing İddia, a type of sports betting, always carrying their İddia papers, which include betting tips and bulletins that show which matches are available for betting on instead of bringing their books to school.

“There were two desks reserved for betting in class. During each lesson, two friends [of mine] were studying the papers and making coupons for İddia. The teachers were aware of this. Our girlfriends were also placing bets, and they were asking us [the boys] for advice,” Kadız said.

Recalling the financial burden of such betting, Kadız said he sometimes didn’t eat lunch at school so that he could spend his all pocket money on gambling. “I even spent my school bus money that my father gave me to pay the fee to buy more İddia slips. Playing İddia became a lifestyle for me at that time,” Kadız noted.

Kadız further said that families should take a lesson from his confession and take the necessary precautions to protect their children from such games of chance. “Children or teenagers generally start such betting in Internet cafes or learn about it from their friends, so families and teachers should monitor the students and take precautions before they become addicted to such activities,” he said.

Kadız was involved in sports gambling for six years but recovered from his addiction with the help and support of his family and friends. After he overcame his addiction, he passed his university entrance exam and is currently studying physics at Yıldız Technical University. Stating that she counseled an 8-year-old boy who stole his parents’ credit card to play İddia and other types of sports betting on the Internet, family counselor Meryem Bal told Today’s Zaman that children first come across such games at Internet cafes and added that “parents should be watchful and protect their children from such activities.”

Concerns over Turkish football corruption

Concerns over Turkish football corruption

Turkish businessman Emin Hitay, who is chairman of an investment holding company bearing his name which has a shareholding in the legal Turkish betting site Bilyoner.com has expressed his concerns over corruption in Turkish football, which he claims could result in a 10 percent hit to his company’s revenues.

Speaking to Hurriyet Daily News over the weekend, Hitay said match-fixing and bribery allegations surfacing recently and being investigated by the police were worrying. And he used the opportunity to take a shot at what he claimed were many unregistered foreign online betting companies operating in Turkey without paying taxes, thus threatening legitimate vendors with unfair competition.

“Certainly they pay out higher than Turkish betting companies because they are unregistered in Turkey, illegally collecting money and not paying taxes,” he said. “This is clearly unfair for Turkey’s betting sector.”

Bilyoner.com is an online betting company which is only authorised to provide service for İddaa, the sole legal football betting game in Turkey. The online betting company’s revenues reached Euro 550 million by the end of September this year, according to Hitay.

The football scandal erupted in July this year and has touched even major clubs like Fenerbahçe, whose president Aziz Yıldırım is still in custody along with several other professionals.

The UK online betting group Sportingbet recently offloaded its Turkish interests to the Isle of Man-based internet gambling group GVC for around GBP 125 million.